The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-12-01
FRENCH EXECUTIONS.
The History, Sureness and Advantages
the Guillotine.

the GuillOtine.
The beheading of Pranzini gives what
the French call dctudlite to the subject
of executions. Let us see how an
assassin in this country pays his debt
to society. France is, with the excep-
ton of Italy, the sole European country
that decapitates its murderers. Ger
many uses the AK only in case of high
treason; Spain and Portugal garrote
their assassins; Switzerland and Bel
gium have practically abolished the
death penalty.
Without going into a scientific dis
cussion as to the advantage of behead-
ing over the more general-and, ac-
cording to the popular idea, more in
famous-mode of hanging, the guillo-
tine has the precious advantage of be-
ing sure every time; there are no cords
to break or stretch. and no miscalcula-
ton is ever made in the 'drop."
1t is curious and not generally
known fact that the first guillotine was
constructed, after designs of recorder
1T Strasburg, by certain Tobias
Schmitz, manufacturer of what is to-
day considered another instrument of
torture-the piano! Until 1872 the
guillotine had not been much improved.
1t resembled the scaffold that is used
in America. Alright of steps led up to
the platform, which was surrounded
by railing. The idea was to "let
every body see." Tho guillotine was
called by criminals the AJ6aye de
Montc-G-Regret, signifying that it was
an abbey which separated them from
the rest of the world and that they
mounted its steps with regret. Helm
dereich, who was the headsman in
1872, had greatly improved the instru-
ment. Instead of monster machine
that it took three or four hours to put
together, Heindereich reduced the gull
lotine to its simplest expression and
such as it is to-day; two upright iron
beams containing two grooves on each
inner side, one for the 'lunette," or
socket, and the other for the trapezi-
form knife; perpendicular swinging
plank rising to the level of the culprit's
breast. against which he is thrown for
ward between the two beams; at the
right of this plank, and leaning on to a
willow basket, painted black and partly
filled with bran, is board over which
they slide the body after decapitation;
to the left, two pals of carbonated
water; in front, u sort of zinc tub, into
which the head falls. The guillotine
was formerly painted in red. and the
knife so exposed that it was the first
object seen by the condemned man on
leaving the prison gate. Now it is of a
pale yellow color. and the knife is con-
cealed.
The guillotine is erected on the part
of the Rue de la Roquette, which forms
a small square between the two prisons
fronting on it. One is the Grand Ro-
quette, used for criminals condemned |
to long terms of imprisonment or BAN
and who remain here until !
they are sent elsewhere or shipped to
New Caledonia. The other is Little |
Roquette, where minors are confined.
The distance from the prison door to
the Cuillotine is not more than twenty /
steps. The executions take place at
the dawn of day. and as far as any
thing being seen by the crowd they are
private. Only the journal !
sts and few privileged ones are adj !
nitted on the square. AT two o'clock
in the morning the cavalry and infant
~ of the Paris Municipal Guard, one
hundred each, fifty cavalry gendarmes
and about five hundred policemen ap-
pear. The soldiers push back the mob
so far as to leave the entire square
clear. Shortly afterward the exeeu-
toner arrives in large red wagon,
which contains the guillotine. The in
strument is packed in number of
cases, each piecs being numbered.
The aids put it together, the work not
lasting over half an hour. When the
knife is in place the headsman tries its
edge on a small bundle of straw, to
see that it slides easily and cuts web.
Just before the moment of execution
the gendarmes arrange themselves in
q horseshoe form around the guiIlo-
tine, and two rows of policemen form
line from the prison door to the in
strument. 1t is through this line that
the condemned passes.--Paris Letter ia
Epoch - -,----